Fourth Sunday of Great Lent - 2020 Fr. Lawrence Margitich

There have been times in my life as a priest

when I have served alone. A couple weeks ago,

I did the Akathis on a Friday night. Of course,

I prayed for all those who are absent for honorable

reasons. There have been times which I have served

Divine Liturgy with just one singer. congregation

but this is the first time that i have served

divine liturgy on a sunday with empty church

you can hear the echo in the building but this

morning before the liturgy began i took all the

commemoration books and prayed oh there must

be over a thousand names so i don't feel as if

I've been abandoned or alone. I'm reminded of

the story of Father Dimitris Gagathakis, a very

saintly priest who died in the mid -20th century,

I suppose it was. No, had to be the 60s or 70s.

He complained in the altar that the angels were

crowding him and he needed more room. Get out

of my way, I have to go out the door now, he

said. But we have an empty church today, but

many of you are watching, and I feel your prayers

too. Normally I would try to aim to speak for

10 minutes, but you haven't seen me much, and

I haven't seen you in a long time, so forgive

me if I go on a bit longer than usual with my

words not being... very used to media. I'm not

sure how that will carry, but may God grant help

to me and discernment and the words that he wants.

We now especially look for stability in our life

assurance, don't we? Of course, job security

is important. Our family being stable with a

place to live. The lights go on. The water comes

out of the faucet. There's food to eat. Our health

care is reliable. And we have reasonable expectations

for every day. But now, I think more than ever,

we see the real nature of things, the real nature

of this world, which we are blind to for the

most part because we settle into our good routine,

which God blesses us. Make no mistake, I understand

that. But our life is in flux. This world is

ever -changing, temporal, unstable, and it can

be very scary. Right now there are spiritual

and emotional and psychological earthquakes going

on in the people of this world. There's dissatisfaction

for us, too, maybe with the course of action

that the church doors are locked. But it's for

good reason, my dear friends. We do it voluntarily.

No one forces us. The world now, and has always

had in itself, in itself, because it's a fallen

world, nothing to lay hold of. Christians experience

all the turmoil, all the suffering that everyone

else does. We are not exempt. but we can also

experience the peace of God in our heart. Our

goal in our life is not to make peace with this

world in that way that I'm speaking of, to keep

things from falling apart, to hold it together,

to find a comfortable place in life. That can't

be done too well here on earth anyway. And it

can't be permanent. And those who seek after

that is their goal. I'm not saying we shouldn't

ask for God as a blessing for that stability

and goodness and blessing, material blessing.

But if we seek after it, then we have done two

things. We have ignored the Lord's command. Seek

first the kingdom of God. And secondly, we will

find out what St. Isaac the Syrian wrote about.

He said this. when the world completely strips

a man of everything and carries him in a coffin

out of his house on the day of his death, then

the man finds out that the world is a flatterer

and a liar. The world does everything it can

to help us spend our lives chasing after a worldly

good, seeking that first. Seeking the blessings

first, rather than the Creator. And we forget

about God and his love and our eternal soul and

the life of the age to come and the resurrection.

We forget about our sins. Today we heard the

epistle. We heard two epistles striking in how

relevant they are, especially the second one

from Ephesians. Awake, O sleeper. Redeem the

time. Be sober. In the epistle to the Hebrews

we read that we have a sure and steadfast anchor

of the soul. A hope that enters into the inner

shrine behind the curtain where Jesus has gone

as forerunner on our behalf. A sure and steadfast

anchor of the soul. Only one is holy. Only one

is Lord, Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the

Father. Amen. We sing, and only God is the same

yesterday, today, and forever, as the epistle

of the Hebrews teaches us. We have a sure and

steadfast anchor of the soul. Now, a normal anchor

makes the ship stationary, keeps it in one place,

and that's not a very good image for the spiritual

life. Although stability and habit are good,

but that's a different story. I've read that

the anchor that's been written about in Hebrews

Hebrews 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6 is a different kind of anchor. This

anchor is called a kedge, K -E -D -G -E. And

a kedge is an anchor used to pull a sea vessel

forward. That process is called kedging. I've

learned this from listening to Father Patrick

Reardon in a sermon some years ago. To kedge

a vessel is to place the anchor at some distance

from the ship and pull towards it. The ship moves

forward, even against the current, and is winched

into a particular heading, held steady against

the tide. The kedge anchor holds the vessel fast

in the proper direction. Sailing ships use the

kedge anchor when becalmed or drifting. On a

ship, the whole good of an anchor depends on

the ship not losing contact with it. Just so.

Hope cannot be hypothetical. A sure hope in an

anchor, we say. We must be tied to it, holding

fast. In the epistle to the Hebrews, we hear

that the anchor of hope has already been carried

out in front of us, and that anchor is Jesus

Christ. He is already behind the veil. He has

been crucified, buried, died, died and buried

and rose again, ascended into heaven and sits

at the right hand of the Father. He's gone beyond

the veil of death and we that are baptized sit

with him as he sits in glory. We are united to

him. Jesus is drawing him, hedging us to himself.

to the full glory of the kingdom of God. And

right now, this moment, we are joined to him

and ever maintain our proper position and direction

by pulling towards him to the labor that we have

to assert on our part, keeping the prow of our

life, our ship, ever drawn toward him and with

him. This gives us assurance because we can experience

God's love this way, his providence. What did

Jesus say to the apostles about the man whose

faith was foundering on the rocks of his pain

and despair? You heard that story today from

the Gospel of Mark. The boy throwing himself

into fire and into water. The man didn't know

what to do. The apostles couldn't help. We can't

be very tempted by those who are spiritually

weak like ourselves, can't we? We can lose our

equilibrium. if we focus on them. Do you remember

what Jesus said to the apostles at that incident?

He said, when they asked, why couldn't they cast

it out? He said, prayer and fasting. Prayer and

fasting. Lent. We hear about the coming resurrection,

the crucifixion and the resurrection too, but

we really don't understand fasting. Maybe because

we don't trust it. Because we don't do it. to

the extent to find Christ and hunger for God

and our own mortality and weakness in that fasting.

But the Lord's words are pure words, says the

psalmist. And the prayer and the fasting is the

kedge. It's the winch we use to maintain our

direction, to advance our course. That's how

this anchor works. That's how we're going to

maintain union with Jesus Christ, especially

now, during this time. And we learn, like this

man in the gospel, that our faith is weak. And

this is good news to know, because we can do

something about it. It's a valuable lesson. And

then we can stop pushing our own will all the

time. We've placed ourselves in God's hands.

We say to him, Lord and Master of my life. And

then, A situation comes and we've given him authority.

He doesn't take it. We give it to him. Authority

over our life. Because love couldn't bear to

force. And he loves us. A situation comes to

us that he allows. And we push back. We resist.

We push our own will. We don't want it. We won't

approve and we complain. Faith in Christ is fundamental

because faith, which is a virtue from God, implies

that I renounce my arrogance. I can't remember

which pope wrote this, but it was a recent one.

I renounce my arrogance, my thoughts, my idea

of myself, and the claim to judge by myself without

entrusting myself to others, knowing that I may

be wrong. And I need to overcome, when I trust

in Christ, the attitude of arrogance that makes

a person say, well, I know better. My goodness,

this is the 21st century, whatever that means.

I know what people before did not know. No, we

entrust ourselves to the Lord. And right now,

to entrust yourself to the sure anchor. We have

so many opportunities to become more, what would

you think I was going to say? More joyful, more

happy, more sure in God's help, more settled

on things. No, that's not what I'm going to say.

Our life is now full of opportunities to admit

that we are like that brokenhearted, honest,

humble father in the gospel today who said, I

have faith, I believe, but help my unbelief.

So many challenges now are going to reveal, and

that will be good news because it's the light

of God shining on us, the weakness of faith and

the sickness of our souls. And that's good that

we have this time to discover that. And in that,

we will grieve for those who are really, truly

suffering and pray for those who have died. Ask

God to receive them. Lent is the time, this Lent,

because, brothers and sisters, will we have another?

I don't mean that the virus may wipe out the

entire population. I mean, you or I might not

exist this next year. Will we have another? Lent

is the time to see ourselves in that brutally

honest Father, who even in the midst of His love

for His Son, and the confusion around him, and

the apostles being unable to help, and no doubt

the jeering and criticism of the Pharisees around

them. He told the truth about the weakness of

his faith. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.

He didn't say, Lord, I believe these things,

but these are the things I don't believe. And

because this is the way I am. No, he wanted to

be put right. The more we become like that man,

the better. Then we grasp our own sinfulness

and our weakness. The more we cry out from our

hearts, really in a heartfelt way, Lord have

mercy, and the Lord will answer. Because he did

in the story, and he will again. All things are

possible to him who believes. Right now, today,

in our state of separation, We're given the opportunity

to practice patience and endure temptation. We're

given the opportunity to show confidence in our

church by receiving the decisions of our Archbishop

and our Metropolitan, trusting that they love

us and they seek the best for us. We have the

opportunity to spend more hours, many more hours

at home and come to peace with that. We have

the opportunity to spend more time with our spouse.

Couples move away from each other through the

weeks and the months of duties and responsibilities,

and then that brings lack of understanding, lack

of conversation, and maybe alienation. We have

the opportunities to be with our children more.

We have the opportunities to devote time to ourselves,

which we have neglected to do. We have the opportunity

to pray more and be with God because we forget

him in our daily busyness. We have the opportunity

to serve the liturgy at the altar of the heart.

And the time is now at hand. Not just to accomplish

things, the opportunity is here to accomplish

all these things, but if it is not in the altar

of the heart that we seek to be pulled By Christ.

Our anchor. Then we have lost. The ability to

redeem the time. That St. Paul spoke about. Stay

connected to the altar. Which is Christ. The

anchor. The catch. The loving Christ. Is drawing

us. As if we were drowning. He is drawing us

to himself. To him be glory. Now and ever. To

ages of ages.